EDIMS LLC, a leading provider of interoperable emergency department (ED) information management systems, today announced that the ED department at Clara Maass Medical Center smoothly upgraded to the newest version of EDIMS’ electronic health records (EHR) system. The 465-bed Belleville, N.J.-based hospital, a member of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, Livingston, N.J., is the first facility in the nation to implement the recently released EDIMS v2.6 system. This version includes greatly enhanced medication reconciliation, streamlined assessments and several new features.

“The new version has made my life easier by improving workflow efficiency and placing additional and more comprehensive patient information readily available at my fingertips,” said Robert Giles, M.D., an emergency physician at Clara Maass. “For example, the new feature that automatically checks for drug interactions has enabled me to provide better care. This feature saves me about an hour every day because I no longer have to search the Internet, access a drug checking application on my personal digital assistant, and then enter prescription information to be printed out for clinicians, patients or both. Now all the information I need is available within EDIMS.”

ED Nurses at Clara Maass report a similar experience using v2.6. “The enhanced documentation and assessment features of the system makes it much easier and faster to triage and chart patients,” said Gerard Bernales, RN. “The new system automatically retrieves and populates the patient’s history into the record; I just confirm with the patient whether they are still on those medications and have the same allergies and history. This new version of EDIMS helps us to be even more efficient, which of course is especially important in a busy ED.”

EDIMS v2.6, Bernales said, also allows Clara Maass to build and customize a list of commonly prescribed medications that patients take, making it easier to triage and simpler for the provider to maintain and reconcile medications patients are taking at home and prescribed upon admission, transfer or discharge.

In addition to drug interaction and historical triage enhancements, new features of EDIMS v2.6 include:

An eDocuments scanning solution that enables clinicians to scan and add a PDF of important documents to a patient’s chart, including home medication lists, EMS run sheets and driver’s licenses.

An Observation Unit feature that includes observation specific orders and documentation templates, as well as a separate physician observation note, to better document the care provided.

A redesign of assessments that is more comprehensive and system based, enabling clinicians to quickly document the relevant systems.

An upgrade to charge capture determination that fully automates and facilitates the management of injection and infusion charges.

A new iPhone integration feature that gives clinicians the ability to access EDIMS from their mobile devices.

According to said Shane Hade, EDIMS’ CEO, “We are pleased that Clara Maass is using our solutions to help clinicians make faster and more informed decisions at the point of care. With version 2.6, we enhanced our EHR to better support the needs of emergency departments – our systems deliver quick value, enabling hospitals to drive ED quality, safety and efficiency to higher levels as soon as they deploy the system.”